


no one can change the past

by Electric_Angel



Series: The Days Before the Future [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Dangan Ronpa Spoilers, Hinata Hajime and Kamukura Izuru Share a Body Simultaneously, Kamukura Izuru Has Feelings, Mild Gore, Super Dangan Ronpa 2 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28953276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Electric_Angel/pseuds/Electric_Angel
Summary: Hajime performs a bit of introspection after returning from the Killing School Trip.No one can change the past. The only thing we can do is strive to make up for our mistakes....Why must we make up for our mistakes, you ask?Because in so doing... we can find the way back to our path.And once we've found our path, we can move on from our past mistakes toward a brighter future...
Series: The Days Before the Future [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123667
Kudos: 17





	no one can change the past

Even as Hajime Hinata looked in the mirror, he didn’t know who he was staring at.

The question of his identity was one that he purposefully dodged even when confronted about it by his closest friends. The Killing School Trip was in many ways a demonstration of the deepest dredges of despair that one can be dragged down to, and Hajime knew this better than anyone else given his violent revelation regarding who he was.

**(This could have been the other way around.)**

Hajime stared in the mirror in his bathroom intensely, looking at his eyes in particular. His left was a ruby red, the only proof of existence that Izuru Kamukura was ever alive; his right was a gentle green, the reminder that he was always Hajime Hinata no matter what identity he assumed. Wordlessly, he mouthed into the mirror, knowing that Izuru was there somewhere.

_(It doesn’t matter what it could’ve been. I’m here now, and that’s all that really matters.)_

**(That’s easy for you to say. I was created because of your inability to accept your inadequacies.)**

_(And now I’ve accepted them, so maybe you can take that condescending attitude and shove it up your ass.)_

Hajime moved away from the mirror and started to take a walk outside, traversing as he strived to monitor the other Remnants of Despairs’ progress whilst in the Neo World Program still. It was difficult to look upon them knowing what happened in the simulation that they were in—though perhaps the same could be said of the unspeakable atrocities that they have committed. 

**(Wanton destruction on an inhuman, unspeakable level. Starvation done for nothing more than fetishising their suffering. Offering kin and siblings to use for human experimentation. Slaughtering the innocent, forcing them to kill themselves—)**

_(God, you don’t know when to shut up, do you?)_

**(Fuyuhiko’s eye is gone.)**

Hajime stopped in his tracks just as he was about to enter the place where the Neo World Program was situated.

_(...)_

**(Did you know that? Fuyuhiko’s right eye is gone forever. Junko’s eye rotted in his socket and it was by sheer happenstance that Mikan was sane enough to disinfect it to stop the bacteria from spreading elsewhere. He loved every second of it.)**

_(...)_

**(Akane starved herself to the point of extreme emaciation. She was as brittle as a twig, and when the Future Foundation took her in, she looked more of a corpse than a living human.)**

_(...)_

**(Oh, and speaking of—what of Mikan Tsumiki? She salvaged Junko’s uterus and cut out her own for the sake of bearing her children. Obviously, despite her medical skills, it was a botched operation from the start. How boring.)**

_(...)_

Hajime blocked out Izuru’s thoughts as he looked over the status of each remaining person. Of crucial importance to revive would be Nekomaru Nidai—whose heart condition would lead to an untimely death if not dealt to in time—as well as Mikan Tsumiki herself, who would be of significant importance when it came to nursing everyone back to health.

Closing his eyes, he still remembered the horrible sights he saw in his dreams of the Killing School Trip, the most awful executions and the deaths of the people he wished he never saw in such an awful state—

_(Byakuya Togami—no, the Ultimate Imposter—stabbed ten times in the throat and the stomach—_

_Mahiru Koizumi, bludgeoned to death by a baseball bat—_

_Ibuki Mioda, strangled whilst under the influence of the Despair Disease—_

_Hiyoko Saionji, slit in the throat by a weapon Hajime never even found—_

_Nekomaru Nidai, dying from a great fall after losing a duel—_

_Nagito Komaeda, poisoned by—)_

**(You were so self-absorbed by your own inadequacy that you didn’t listen to her, and it led to me. This is all your fault.)**

If there was one thing that Hajime Hinata regretted most, it was the death of Chiaki Nanami and the failure to salvage her AI. That was a regret that he’d take to the grave.

It was a menial task, of course, looking over the pods of the comatose people in the Neo World Program, but it was Herculean fighting back the memories of the Killing School Trip. Sonia Nevermind sat him down one day and discussed with him those flashbacks, telling him that what he experienced was Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It was a given, therefore, that Hajime would be expected to deal with these problems in a healthy manner, but it was somewhat difficult to do that when he was dealing with Izuru Kamukura.

...Izuru Kamukura was not a bad person. Annoying as all hell, yes, but not necessarily a bad person.

Hajime Hinata couldn’t stand the bastard yammering on in his head, but he knew that Izuru suffered a very different conundrum that was not related to anything he was experienced with—that being his lack of existence. Izuru Kamukura did not ask to be born. He did not ask to be granted the power of a million Ultimates, nor did he ask to be without a purpose, nor did he ask to be without an identity of his own. He had no personality because he was not given one. His name, too, was not even his, because it was in honour of the founder of Hope’s Peak Academy. Merging with Hajime Hinata was somewhat of a symbiotic parasitic relationship; Hajime benefitted in the form of gaining those talents where Izuru gained the “gift” of emotion.

_(...Izuru?)_

**(What is it?)**

_(Do you hate me?)_

**(...)**

_(Be honest.)_ As Izuru came up with an answer, Hajime performed a bit of maintenance, cleaning up the room as he continued his mental discussion.

**(The fact that I’m feeling an emotion at all is entirely your fault. The contempt that I feel is without any rational explanation. Perhaps it is not hate directed towards you, but rather the concept of yourself.)**

_(You’ve lost me. What do you mean by a concept? Are you trying to be pretentious again?)_

**(...I hate that I wish I was more like you.)**

_(...)_ Hajime stopped in his tracks. _(What?)_

**(I hate that I wish I was more like you. I hate that you’re able to look towards the future while I’m focused on the past. I hate that you’re able to forgive yourself while I’m still seeking closure I know I’ll never get. I hate that you’re able to think, feel, to live normally without any regrets—I hate that I want to be like you when you’re the antithesis of everything that I was taught.)**

Hajime stopped in the middle of the room, his chores done as he stared into space.

_(...Has anyone told you that you think too much about yourself?)_

**(Excuse me? What gives you the right—)**

_(Shut up! Shut up. It’s my turn to speak. You keep saying how much you hate that you want to be like me, but you say that because you haven’t even tried to do that at all!)_

**(Because I do not deserve that second chance. There’s not much that I can do when I’m in this state.)**

_(God, shut up! You had the entire world’s talents in your fingertips and instead of deciding to make something of yourself, your entire apathy towards the world made you brood instead of at least trying!)_

**(The world was predictable.)**

_(Because you kept thinking about the bigger picture instead of appreciating the little things!)_

**(What do you suggest I do, then?)**

_(Work with me to make a better future for everyone!)_

**(...Why do you want to give me that second chance?)**

_(Because I want to prove that you’re wrong.)_

**(About what, exactly?)**

_(About everything being boring. It’s only been boring because you only dealt in absolutes. You only saw the world in black and white, thinking of either hope OR despair instead of thinking about the future and the other shades of grey in-between. It’s because of that that you were suckered into being Junko’s lapdog, and even if you WERE disgusted by her, you sure as hell never tried to stop her, did you?_

_There’s a lot of things to be love about the world we live in, even if we’re in a place like this and even if we’re the reason that the world ended like it did. The people that I met in that program are some of the most amazing people I ever met, but you only saw them as pieces to be moved on a board game. You saw them as a means to an end to deal with YOUR boredom and no one else’s. You’re going to tell me that I’m being irrational or that being this sappy is boring, but I don’t care about what’s boring and what isn’t._

_You try to bring me down by reminding me that the past can’t be changed, but there’s no point in worrying over the past when it doesn’t matter at all. The people in the present are what matter most. There are people out here that I love. People that I care for like family, like the best friends I never had, or something even more than that. I love them, Izuru. Do you know what love is?)_

**(A choice. A choice to associate with people that you mutually benefit from by being around them.)**

_(That’s right. I chose to love these people because I care about them._

_There’s the Ultimate Imposter, who was the realest person out of all of us despite a lack of identity—_

_Teruteru Hanamura, the Ultimate Chef, who despite his perversion has his family at heart—_

_Mahiru Koizumi, the Ultimate Photographer, a woman who expected the best from us even in the most awful situations—_

_Peko Pekoyama, the Ultimate Swordswoman, whose stoicness belied her soft heart deep down inside that cold exterior—_

_Ibuki Mioda, the Ultimate Musician, the life of the party with hyperactivity that was outright contagious—_

_Hiyoko Saionji, the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, a person that valued the traditions of our past above all else—_

_Mikan Tsumiki, the Ultimate Nurse, who craved love above all else and didn’t deserve to be abused like she was—_

_Nekomaru Nidai, the Ultimate Team Manager, who believed that there was potential in everyone and all we had to do was reach out to take it—_

_Gundham Tanaka, the Ultimate Animal Breeder, who cared everyone from the bottom of his heart no matter how hard he tried to convince us that he was evil—  
  
_ _Nagito Komaeda, the Ultimate Lucky Student, who had been suffering for such a long time that he clung onto hope since it was the one thing he could believe in—_

_Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer, whose love for everyone extended to us even beyond her death in both worlds—_

_Sonia Nevermind, the Ultimate Princess, a bold young woman whose love for her people caused her to stand strong in the face of adversity—_

_Akane Owari, the Ultimate Gymnast, a person that lived in the moment above all else—_

_Kazuichi Souda, the Ultimate Mechanic, a reliable guy whose best strength was being there for us when we needed him the most—_

_Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, the Ultimate Yakuza, the most honourable person I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing—_

_And… you. Izuru Kamukura, the Ultimate Hope, the person that was denied any chance of a proper existence.  
_

_I want to give you that chance and show you that love because I know that you need it. I can’t tell you for certain that I’ll be able to let you find your identity on your own, but while I’m here… I want to prove to you that the world isn’t as boring as you think it is.)_

**(...A most impressive speech. However, there was one person that you missed.)**

_(Huh…? Who would that be?)_

**(...Hajime Hinata, whose talentless existence was still of worth considering that he was able to save even the most heartless of people.)**   
  
_(Gee, thanks. Considering that’s from you, I’ll take that as a high compliment.)_

**(That was what it was intended to be, yes. I will hold you to that. If you can prove that the world isn’t as boring as I think it is, then perhaps that is a life worth living.)**

_(Good. Good… That’s all I could possibly ask. We’ll grasp that future together.)_

“...yo… Yo…! YO! Hajime! Wake up, man, you’ve been staring into space for ages.”  
  
Hajime’s mental conversation was over as he looked in front of him, the face of Kazuichi Souda just a little bit away from his as he zoned back into reality.  
  
“Huh…? Was I really out for that long?”

“Yeah, dude. Seriously, you’re gonna give me grey hairs.” Kazuichi clicked his tongue. “Anyway, we’re gonna be honouring Chiaki today… Are you up for that? I can leave you be if you need it.”  
  
Hajime looked towards the pods in the room, before looking back to the mechanic and smiling. “On second thought… yeah. I think I’ll attend.”

“Awesome! C’mon, we’re gonna be late if you keep standing around!”

With Kazuichi in front of him, Hajime started to walk forward, the wind racing through his hair as he mused himself.

Even if it’s just one little bit at a time…

Even if it’s just day after day after day…

Even if there’s no way that he’ll be able to fix the past…

Even if it means that he can live on for the people that preceded him… that’s an existence worth living. That’s something that no one could ever take away from him, because the future was in his hands, and he’d gladly live on if it meant he’d spend it with the people surrounding him.

* * *

_No one can change the past. The only thing we can do is strive to make up for our mistakes._

_...Why must we make up for our mistakes, you ask?_

_Because in so doing... we can find the way back to our path._

_And once we've found our path, we can move on from our past mistakes toward a brighter future..._

**Author's Note:**

> In which I decided to be clever and take ANOTHER Ace Attorney quote and applied it to Danganronpa.
> 
> This is a sequel piece to a fanfic I did a while back; reading over it again made me decide to write a version for the ending of SDR2. This takes a bit of headcanon regarding Izuru's general character and how he might feel regarding his situation with Hajime, but I would like to think that I did his character justice, somewhat.
> 
> I have written this also to show that I am not dead and am still a somewhat active writer.


End file.
